He is a creation – and alter ego — of Thai artist/activist Manit Sriwanichpoom. The Pink Man series began in 1997, the same year the Thai baht lost half its value, the country’s bourse fell 75%, and the Asian financial crisis began.

It was designed as commentary on Asian consumerism and urban identity. In photos and videos, the Pink Man – a man (not the artist) dressed in a bright pink satin suit – pushes a pink shopping cart as he visits cities around the world. As people move around him (a busker playing the violin; a man eating an ice cream cone), there he is in flamingo pink. Inserted into old black-and-white photographs of soldiers beating protesters, there’s the Pink Man. Looking on benignly as a soldier aims his gun, he’s there again, in pink.

In light of the country’s current political problems, the Pink Man seems to resonate even more. At least, that’s what the Singpaore Art Museum’s 8Q space is hoping. It has staged a solo show of Manit Sriwanichpoom’s work. More than 100 images and videos are on exhibit – the curators focused on his more politically tinged pieces.

But the show, which runs until Nov. 7, is a “mid-career survey,” according to the museum, and it shows. It doesn’t include, for instance, the artist’s more famous works such as the Pink Man in Paris at the Sacré-Coeur Basilica and the Cathédrale de Notre Dame.

Nonetheless, notable pieces on display include a wall of large photographs in garish gold faux-rococo frames of Pink Man and the Thai flag, including one where he covers a young school boy’s eyes. Also arresting are a number of images where Pink Man in his flourescent glory is photoshopped into violent political news events like lynchings and riots.

New video works made last year called the “Pink Man Opera” series juxtapose traditional Thai dancers with the famous pink-suited figure. They are attractive because of their colors, but also because they hint at the artist’s current project, his first feature film, which he is making with Ing K, a frequent collaborator, artist and social activist.

The upcoming movie is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” set this time in a fictional Southeast Asian kingdom. Much of the filming took place during the tense, violent days earlier this year when anti-government groups barricaded parts of Bangkok’s business district. It is now in post-production.

Manit Sriwanichpoom, who lives in Thailand, said by email that “Pink Man Opera” videos at the 8Q museum have a jarring neon lighting — “visually inspired by Caravaggio’s paintings” — that is aesthetically related to the Hamlet movie he is making. Two years ago, he and Ing K made a cinéma vérité-style documentary called “Citizen Juling,” about an art teacher who dies in strife-ridden southern Thailand. It won the top award last year at the popular Kom Chad Luek Awards in Thailand, and was screened at two influential film festivals – Toronto and Berlin.